Place the water and levain or pre-ferment into a large bowl and stir to loosen the pre-ferment up. Then add in your flours and stir until no dry bits of flour remain. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp cloth. Place the dough in a warm place around 75-80 degrees and allow to rest or autolyze for 40 minutes.

Add your salt and raisins to the dough and give your dough a turn by lifting the dough up from the bottom of the bowl and folding it over the top. Let the dough rise for 3-4 hours giving it a turn every half an hour for the first 3 hours. This takes the place of kneading by giving the dough a long fermentation with gentle gluten development through the turning.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and shape it into a rough round. Cover the dough with lightly oiled plastic wrap or the inverted bowl and allow the dough to rest for 20 minutes.

Shape the dough into a round boule by turning it over so that the smooth side is down on the counter then fold the right third of the dough to the center then fold the left third to the center. Then repeat with the top and bottom. Now you have a neat little package. Turn the dough over so that the smooth side is now facing up and gently pull the dough towards you on the counter while cupping it to get a nice tight round shape. You can also shape it into a batard.

Place the dough into a well floured dough rising basket or a bowl lined with a well-floured linen cloth. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise at a warm room temperature for 2-3 hours, or until it is light and has risen by almost double.

Preheat the oven with a baking stone on the middle rack and a cast iron skillet set on bottom rack to 500 degrees. If you have a dutch oven you can use that instead of the baking stone and skillet. The dutch oven with a lid will create a little oven inside your oven to mimic a professional oven. It will trap steam that is baking off of the bread in the dutch oven, preventing a crust from forming too quickly.

When you are ready to bake, carefully take your dutch oven out of the oven (that is if you are using one), remove the lid and invert your dough carefully into the dutch oven. Score the top, replace the lid and put the whole dutch oven back into the oven and bake for twenty minutes. Alternatively, if you are baking directly on the stone, turn your dough out onto the stone and score the top. Then pour ½ cup of water into the cast iron skillet. Quickly close the door and allow the loaf to bake for 20 minutes. For both methods reduce the heat to 450 degrees after the first 20 minutes of baking. Remove the lid from the dutch oven if you are using that and continue to bake for another 20-25 minutes or until the loaf is a deep brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Allow the loaf to cool on a wire rack for at least 2 hours. * to make a pre-ferment instead of using a sourdough, combine together 100 grams (3.5 oz, a little less than 1/2 cup) of water and 100 grams (3.5 oz, a little over 2/3 cup) of all-purpose four with a ¼ tsp of instant yeast. Let stand at room temperature for 4-8 hours or until it is bubbly and smells sweet and yeasty.